



REV. MR. RICHARDSON'8 



DISCOURSE. 







'J\^'^ 



UbcdicQce to Human Law considered iu llie Light of Divine Truth, 



DI8C0UESE 



DELIVERED 



IN THE FIRST BAPTIST MEETING HOUSE, 

LA WRENCE, MASS. 

JULY 4, 1852. 



By JOHN C. RICHARDSON, 

PASTOR OF THE CHURCH. 



LAWRENCE: 
PRINTED BY HOMER A. COOKE, 
1852. 



NOTE. 

The author of this Discourse has been induced to put it to the press 
for the Truth's sake. It is a pleasure to him to afford an opportunity to 
the people of his charge to review the sentiments to Avhich they have 
once listened, and to deposite in the hands of the public an humble testi- 
mony in defence of the principles of righteousness. 

"i^ (/) V' 



DISCOURSE. 



— @©^— 

This is the Lord's Day. " It is the day which the Lord 
hath made ; we will rejoice and be glad in it," We embrace 
it as the occasion in which is celebrated the triumphs of 
Jesus over the tomb, in which was completed the work of 
Redemption on earth, the sign of the blessings of the Gospel 
to sinful men. But this day is not only the Christian Sab- 
bath, it is likewise by the date of this year a National Sab- 
bath-day. It is the Fourth of July, in the seventy-sixth 
year of the Independence of the United States of America, 
the birth day of our country, the day loved by every Ameri- 
can heart. Though it is in the popular phrase " the glori- 
ous fourth," I have no oration to pronounce, I have no 
speech portraying the glories of our Republic. I come not 
to you under the sound of the booming cannon, I take not 
the platform where I am to be greeted with cheers from 
an excited multitude. I have no cheers to receive, I ask for 
none, but I solicit listening ears, serious countenances, devo- 
tional hearts and thoughtful minds. I would preach the 
gospel this day, and being the anniversary of our Independ- 
ence, I am moved to proclaim the gospel in one aspect of its 
relation to the interests of this nation. 

A few thoughts I propose to utter on the duties of the 



American Christian. The suggestions to be expressed are 
derived from two clauses in the First Epistle of Peter, Chap- 
ter II. Yerse 17. 

Fear God. Honor the King. 

In these two injunctions the complex duty of the christian 
is enjoined. First, that God should be revered, his law obey- 
ed. Second, that the king, or civil government, should be 
honored, a submission to its requirements, should be prac- 
ticed by the disciple of Jesus. If in this land we have no 
king, civil authority should be none the less respected. 

Concerning the obligations of the christian to obey Him 
who speaks from heaven, none need to err. The word 
spoken by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, tells us why God 
should be obeyed, how he should be obeyed, with all the 
explicitness^ which language in precept can enforce, and 
example can illustrate. 

The word of God also makes it as plain as terms can de- 
fine, that there should be subjection to civil law, that hu- 
man authority has the seal of God. " Render unto Caesar, the 
things that are Caesar's, and unto God, the things that are 
God's. Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers, 
for there is no power but of God, the powers that be are or- 
dained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, 
resisteth the ordinance of God, and they that resist shall re- 
ceive to themselves damnation." The clearest instruction of 
the gospel directs the christian to pay deference to human 
authority, to be submissive to the existing government 
where he dwells. It becomes us to honor the power which 
protects us, a power that is essential to the existence and 
best interests of society ; and is it not an appropriate time, 



on this sabbath of the church, this jubilee of the nation, for 
the American christian to consider his moral relation to the 
civil authority of our Republic. We have a magistracy that 
we should honor. Fear God, and honor the magistrate who 
beareth a sway to the security of quietness and good order. 
Those clothed in the functions of civil ofiice, executing so 
many statutes of equity, we should esteem, for their works 
sake. They fulfil the will of God, On this glad day we would 
thank our Father in Heaven, we would inspire our hearts 
with a stronger devotion, not to the perverted, but to the 
true genius of our government. To those to whom our Con- 
stitutions do grant freedom, it is freedom indeed. Except- 
ing the colored citizen there is provided a liberty, and if this 
-exception, so unjust, does not make the import of the 
statement impossible, it is a liberty which is the offspring of 
christian sentiment, the fruit of a civilization, moulded and 
purified by the principles of the Gospel. If there is a com- 
munity of saints on earth who should be earnest in their 
submission to some of the best laws men have enacted, and 
careful to maintain a respect to those empowered with civil 
rule, God's people in this nation, are that people. We have 
codes of laws which are the guardian agents of the institu- 
tions of religion, of education, and of humanity. They are 
the fostering angel of the noblest enterprises human hearts 
have espoused. The Fourth of July summons in the chris- 
tian a lively patriotism, and brings the fundamental doctrines 
of our State and Federative Government to that range in 
which they should receive honor. 

There are, however, some features in our governmental af- 
fairs distinct from legislative enactments which cannot be 
commended. The partizan feeling, not the warfare be- 



tweeii actual political sentimentSj hut the battle of mere par- 
ties, sustained by manoeuvring and crafty policy is to be de- 
plored. The party spirit of the day, the cunning of political 
men, does sometimes grind the innocent with cruelty, exclude 
the most worthy from posts of responsibility. But though 
partyism be the abuse, or the necessary nuisance of a Repub- 
lican Government, yet, if we must suffer one of the two evils, 
the evil of party strife or the evil of an absolute power which 
holds a crushed people under the sceptre of a monarch, give 
us the evil of parties, guarded as we are by constitution^. 
We would endure the demagogues among American poli- 
ticians, rather than the absolutists who seize the purse and 
the sword to trample on the rights of the masses. 

Every time the birth-day of the nation is celebrated, at 
every return of demonstrations of public joy, the christian 
will have thanksgiving. He will have the incitements of 
love to his country blended with fear, with the highest so- 
licitude for the purity, the prosperity, the destiny of his own 
land. Never will he whose mind is imbued with the tem- 
per of the Gospel be more disposed to cherish the injunc- 
tion of the text. Fear God, Honor the power which a free 
people under God have established. 

But we have remarked that the text imposes a complex 
duty : obedience to God, submission to the law of man. If 
at any time the statutes of men and the commandments of 
God conflict, what is the course the christian should follow ? 
This is a question for the American christian. It is a ques- 
tion for him on the anniversary of his nation's freedom. At 
this period, when the considerations which are hopeful, when 
elements which are fearful are made the theme of public dis- 
course, when liberty is huzzaed and the great principles of a 



nation, a Republic's prosperity, dwell on the lips of men, 
women and children, it is a question with a christian citi- 
zen what ought to be his action when " the powers that 
be," by their enactments require of him a service contrary 
to the law of his God. On this Fourth day of July, on this 
day given us by Him who is our King in the heavens, on 
this day when God and our country are combined subjects, 
let us give our thoughts to the duty of the christian when 
the civil law forbids him to observe the Divine rule. This 
is a question of great moment, on its decision immediate con- 
sequences issue, and results that are stupendous. 

As plainly as the Bible commands obedience to God, as 
plainly as it insists upon obedience to rulers, so plainly does 
it reveal to us whether we should in any instance disobey 
civil authority, and when we should do it. The scriptures 
have made provision for obedience to man and with equal 
clearness they make provision for disobedience to man. It 
is as easy to know when we should disobey the magistrate, 
as to know when we should obey him. If the statutes of 
the land direct the christian to perform a work which breaks 
the commands in the decalogue, or infringes upon the spirit 
of a plain precept in the gospel, that statute is not to be hon- 
ored nor its requirements fulfilled. Shadrach, Meshach, 
Abednego, and Daniel, those eminent servants of the Lord, 
set at naught the enactments of government. They were 
commanded to violate the first and second law in the table, 
by practising idolatry, a service they would not do. The 
Apostles were told by the authority of their times to preach 
no more the Gospel of Jesus ; they were forbidden to follow 
a definite injunction of the gospel, to discharge their duty to 
their fellow men, to commimicate blessings to their neigh- 



8 

bor. They were prohibited to obey the second great com- 
mandment, " Thou shah love thy neighbor as thyself,'' in 
the form of making known to men the truth of salvation : yet 
they gave no heed to these mandates. '• Peter and the other 
Apostles answered and said, we ought to obey God rather 
than men." While the powers that be are a terror to evil- 
doers, they are the ordinance of God ; but when they be- 
come a terror to the doers of righteousness, the agents to 
trample on Divine law, they are not the ordinance of God. 
He has for them no seal, no apology. Had not the proph- 
ets, had not the apostles, had not the reformers John Knox, 
John Wickliffe, Roger Williams, had not the missionaries of 
the cross at every corner of the earth, broken civil law, de- 
fied its claims, to execute their work, the Gospel would not 
have been preached. By disobedience to human govern- 
ment for the Lord's sake, we have the outspreading triumphs 
of the church, we have the great achievements gained in 
the nineteenth century for personal liberty. By the rejec- 
tion of human law, because of the authority of God, we 
have our glorious Republic, we have seventy-six jubilee 
days of our nation. Obedience to God in conflict with the 
opposing edicts of men, is a component principle in the in- 
strumentality which has extended the religion of heaven, 
and redeemed men from ignorance and bondage. 

On the statute book of our Federal Government there is a 
law, to obey which is a sin. To honor, to fulfil the requi- 
sitions of the Fugitive Slave Law, is a violation of the pre- 
cepts of Christianity. It requires us to withhold bread from 
the hungry, to plunder the poor, to rob our fellow of those 
rights God has given him. Christ says, " give to him that 
asketh." which means in spirit, give to any man of what- 



ever nation, class, or color, who needs the blessings which 
you enjoy. But the United States Government says, thou 
shalt not give to him who is escaping from the lash and the 
iron-hearted oppressor. Thou shalt not ^ive to him bread, 
lodging or money, who prays thee to help him beyond the 
reach of the slave-hunter. Fines and imprisonment shall 
come upon thee when thou doest these benevolent deeds to 
the panting bondman.* Christ, by the mouth of his ser- 
vants, says, " Do good unto all men," "Let the oppressed 
go free," " Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the ser- 
vant which is escaped from his master unto thee. He shall 
dwell with thee, even among you in that place which he 
shall choose, in one of thy gates where it liketh him best. 
Thou shalt not oppress him." But the United States Gov- 
ernment says to you christian, yes to you christian citizen, 
if the fugitive shall leap from the grasp of the pursuer, in 
thy presence, thou shalt at the bidding of legal agents lay 
thy hands upon the flying man and bring him back to the 
power of the man-stealer. This Government commands 
you to serve the tyrant when he pleases, in replacing the 
chains and fetters upon your brother, and his victim.f Can 
it be that this is a law of our country, a law of the Ameri- 
can Republic ! O, my God, has delusion and perverseness 
come over this nation ? What does it become us to do in 
relation to this law ? We are to disclaim against it. We 
are to dishonor it. We are to break it according to the pro- 
visions of our christian faith. . The Gospel directs us how 
we shall treat the law. It does not command us to raise re- 
bellion against the Statute by force of arms, it does not lead 

* Fugitive Slave Law, Section 7. t Fugitive Slave Law, Section 5th. 

2 



10 

us to a riotous demonstration against its execution ; but 
we are to disregard its demands. We should cry out against 
its cruelty. We should feed the fugitive, give him a hiding 
place, furnish him with money to escape to the land of the 
free. Should it be asked, if this procedure will not en- 
danger the peace of the nation, conspire to the dissolution 
of our Federative system. Let me inquire, brethren, which 
is of the most importance, that the word of the Blessed Re- 
deemer, the law of the Holy God who sits upon a throne 
forever and ever, should be obeyed, or the American Union 
continued. I can prove to a demonstration that obedience 
to God is the hope of a free people, the hope of humanity, 
the hope of the world : but that the existence of the Ameri- 
can Union is the hope of the human race is only a conjec- 
ture. Who can make it appear that God needs this Federal 
Government to exalt his children on earth. The perman- 
ency of this Republic seems to be of the greatest necessity, 
and yet this is an opinion of the short sighted, and may be 
erroneous. I believe in patriotism. Love of country is a 
flame I would fan in every heart : but it is a love sanctified 
by the religion of Christ, a christian patriotism. When we 
set up our Republic, to the dethronement of Divine author- 
ity, to the disannulling of a higher law ; make a Moloch of 
the Union to which we fall down and worship, we abandon 
patriotism, for the base sin of idolatry. The public press 
may assert the execution of the law for the rendition of 
slaves is essential to the preservation of the Union, and 
statesmen may declare the operation of the statute will avert 
the direst revolution, save us from anarchy, and will con- 
tinue to us liberties we can have in no other course. This 
train of testimony we conceive to be delusive, manufactured 



11 

by the wily, who have succeeded in bhnd-folding the 
American mind. Considering the nature of oiu: federal rela- 
tions, the dependence, in fact, which slave communities 
have on free communities, and resting our country on those 
principles God has fixed for national progress, the Fugitive 
Slave Law is of as much service in holding this Union to- 
gether as is a cob-web in holding the beams of an edifice on 
which it happens to span. Now there may be a disbanding 
of this Federation of States, by a failure to execute this law, 
though we have no fears of that, but to say the American 
people will suffer loss, be hurled into a pit of social ruin, be- 
cause the Fugitive Slave Law is aniniUed by christian 
action, is a libel on the genius of our institutions, a libel on 
that love of liberty which burns in the heart of true-hearted 
citizens, a libel on the principles of God's word. It is the 
practical working of the Fugitive Slare Law that threatens 
our nation, endangers our rights. It is the most fearful in- 
strumentality to prevent the American Republic performing 
its mission among the kingdoms of the world. The main- 
tenance of this law darkens the prospects of this country. 
By it consciences are hardened, and vengeance will come. 
Where, christian friends, is my authority for thus speaking ? 
What are my arguments ? The defenders of the cruel law 
take their ideas from their reasoning ; my opinion is not of 
my own device, but from the Eternal Reasoner. Hear now 
the proof I adduce for my assertions, and decide ye lovers of 
the truth if what I have spoken is false. '-Wo unto them 
which decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievous- 
ness which they have prescribed, to turn aside the needj^ 
from judgment and to lake away the right from the poor of 
my people. That widows may be their prey and that they 



12 

may rob the fatherless. And what will ye do in the day of 
visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far, 
to whom will ye flee for help and where will ye leave your 
glory." 

The doctrine of a higher-law is the doctrine that will 
stand ; it is the doctrine for the christian, revealed in the 
pages of God's word. It should be remembered the su- 
premacy of Divine law to human law has been incorporated 
in the instruction of those who have been trained in re- 
ligious truth, disseminated in our communities. The at- 
tempt to dispossess the mind of the principle of higher law, 
is a reversion of our education^ au overthrow of the lessons 
we have received at the fire-side, in the school-room, in the 
Bible Class, and around the pulpit. Those who have urged 
obedience to the law of slave-catching, have committed glar- 
ing inconsistencies, and have been recreant to the sentiments 
which have long been inculcated in the mind, sentiments 
that have given to our people their exalted character. 

In a small periodical. Merry's Museum, a work published 
for children, recommended by some of our statesmen who de- 
fend the Fugitive Slave Law and plead against the liigher 
law ; in this work, thirty or forty copies of which are circu- 
lated among the most intelligent families in Lawrence, is an 
article in which the casting of tea into Boston harbor, a re- 
bellious act against a known civil law, is declared to be the 
origin of our Revolution and glorious Independence.* Chil- 
dren, in the day when the great men are advocating sub- 
mission to a diabolical law, are taught by that reading which 
these great men recommend, that our fore-fathers, trampling 

"'Merry's Museum, February No. 1851, 



13 

on a legislative enactment, a law of mere taxation, displayed 
their noble spirit, their love of justice and their glory. Near 
that month of 1850, in which the Constitutional Convention 
was assembled in Faneuil Hall to urge submission to the 
Fugitive Slave Law and discountenance the doctrine of the 
higher law, addressed by the Curtises, the Halletts, the 
Choates and the Henshaws, I was sitting in one of tlie school 
rooms of this town listening to a class who were reading a 
section which inculcated the sentiment that God's law 
should be obeyed and man's disobeyed when the latter re- 
quired a conduct contrary to the former. The subject of 
the narrative was a Roman christian, commended because he 
would not violate the laws of his Master, Jesus Christ, to prac- 
tice obedience to a law of his country. The text book 
from which this class were reading is in extensive use in the 
schools of this Commonwealth.* Why do not the conduc- 
tors of Faneuil Hall meeting raise a crusade against the in- 
struction of the children in Massachusetts. If all the princi- 
ples promulgated in the convention are truthful, the books 
which our children read should be expelled from their 
schools. The religious ideas, the sentiments of the Bible 
that have worked in our educational system ought, accord- 
ing to the wisdom of those who plead for submission to an 
iniquitous law, to be expurgated from every page on which 
the youth of our land cast their eye. Do these men know 
what they are doing ? They are the deserters of the system 
of truth which has given our most enlightened communi- 
ties their religion, their morals and intellectual discipline. 
They are traecherous to that which is vital and noble and 

* Russell g American Class Book, Lesson CIV. 



14 

righteous. A number of months since, a good man laborhig 
among the poor in Boston, touched me on the shoulder as I 
was entering a house of worship in that city, with these 
words in substance whispered in my ear : Are you all asleep 
in Lawrence ? I have great interest in your line of direc- 
tion ; I have sent seventy fugitive slaves through your 
place or near it, and have kept them by you or beyond you, 
till they have gone to Canada ; I have found them where 
they have been secreted, and with food and fare have post- 
ed them oif to safety. This man is helped by the most 
prominent citizens in his work of benevolence, for those re- 
ligiously and bodily destitute ; even by those we sup- 
pose, who pretend to urge obedience to that law of robbery 
and Satanic oppression. Who, we ask, has been perform- 
ing the service of God, that servant of mercy to the poor, 
disregarding the requisition of the Fugitive Slave Law, or 
those orators who called upon citizens of the North, to give 
back human bodies and souls to men-stealers ? With the 
Gospel open before us, who has followed the will of God ? 
Who has adhered to the principles which have given us 
knowledge, social elevation and freedom of conscience. 
The doctrine of the higher law should be endeared to every 
christian. We ought to be jealous of its authority. It is a 
branch of the Gospel. A rule that has sent the Saints of 
God from triumph to triumph, in the world. We will tell 
those men who have derided the higher law, who have 
strove to weaken its force, they have engaged in a task in 
which their strength will fail. Christ is against them ; the 
example of the holiest men is against them ; the true re- 
formers of the race and missionaries of the cross scatter to 
the wind their sophistry. 



15 

The efforts that are making to grind the colored man to 
the dust, to suppress a discussion of his rights, are saddening 
and sickening. Not only must we hurl bleeding men 
and women back to bondage, but we must close all agitation 
of the subject of slavery. What have the two great parties 
of this nation declared by their representatives. When I 
speak of the political parties of the country, I take their 
moral aspects. I look at them through the Word of God. 
I have no political sentiments to express ; politics I preach 
not ; but I am to shew forth God's spoken will ; I am to 
speak to the sinner and of the sinner, whether he is in his 
individual capacity, or is found in associations and parties. 
The resolutions passed by the Democratic and Whig Na- 
tional Conventions the present year, referring to slavery, 
concern every minister of Christ, they concern every chris- 
tian. If those resolutions have a meaning, the spirit of them 
would remove me from this pulpit, they would shut my 
mouth in its feeble pleading for the rights of our fellows. 
What ! are we to stop praying for the slave, to cease talking 
and preaching for the bondmen ? Are we to remember no 
longer, those in bonds as bound with them ? Believe me, 
brethren, in the cause of righteousness I would not fight with 
weapons that are carnal ; I would have holy boldness in a 
tender spirit, but as a minister of Christy as an American 
citizen, as an American minister, on this Sabbath, the gift 
of the Saviour, on this Fourth Day of July, the Seventy- 
Sixth of the Independence of this Republic, I challenge the 
Democratic and Whig Conventions of 1852, on the execu- 
tion of their resolutions touching the agitation of slavery. 
One pulpit shall not wear the shackles they would impose, 
one preacher shall be free. If the passage of these resolu- 



16 

tions was effected in sincerity, they are an abomination. If 
they were adopted for a mere ruse, a scheme of policy, they 
express a work of hypocricy. 

What is the advantage in agitating the subject of slavery, 
asks the objector ? There is a gain ; the down-trodden are 
twenty-five years nearer their freedom then when agitation 
commenced. Twenty years did Clarkson and Wilberforce 
labor to achieve the abolition of the African Slave Trade ; 
and though it is ten-fold more difficult to remove American 
Slavery, and may require ten times as long a period ; shall 
there be agitation two hundred years to gain the freedom of 
the oppressed ? Yes, agitate ! agitate ! agitate ! Does it be- 
come us to terminate agitation for those groaning in a prison- 
house of injustice ? Then let us be consistent and bring to 
an end agitation of every form for the moral and religious 
good of mankind. Let the American Tract Society, which 
which has sent its colporteurs to every corner of the land, 
and its documents which are incendiary pages to the heart, 
in every city, town and hamlet in the country, finish its ag- 
itation for the deliverence of our fellows from the fetters of 
of infidelity, intemperance and unbelief. I^et the American 
Missionary Union instruct Oncken, their missionary, to agi- 
tate no longer for liberty of conscience in Germany. 
Let the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mis- 
sions, order Dr. King to desist and agitate no more for the 
privileges and doctrines of the Gospel in Greece. The pow- 
ers at Rome, the French, the Austrian, the German, the Rus- 
sian authorities, exclaim to those who struggle for the jus- 
tice of the people, agitate no more for the freedom of the 
bodies and souls of men, and the echo is heard on this 
Western Continent, in this land of the free, from the lips of 



17 

statesmen and professing christians, agitate no more for those 
held in chains forged by their brother man. We would 
ask every one to consider the history of true Christianity in 
in the world. The followers of Jesus have agitated more 
than eighteen hundred years. Every soul, every tribe, every 
people won to the kingdom of Christ have been secured by 
agitation. We should act for the liberation of the slave by 
a similar instrumentality with which we strive to reclaim 
the drunkard and seek the conversion of the unbelieving. 
Christian friends, we have thoughts to cherish on this sub- 
ject. As those imbued with the spirit of the Saviour, we 
have words to speak, actions to perform, duties to fulfil. It 
is a service of good-will to the slave holder, of mercy to the 
enslaved ; a work for the best interests of the nation, and 
for the furtherance of the Gospel, 

O, Brethren, have we no words, no acts for outraged hu- 
manity, when our brother and sister have reposed in the 
forests of our neighborhood, caught a morsel at a farm-house, 
and escaped with souls of anguish, by the darkness of night, 
hastened in the steps of sorrow and desolation to a strange 
land that they may no longer be a prey to those who strip them 
of all that is dear to the heart. The air which we breathe 
so generous and so free, begets in their heart the palpitation 
of fear; the soil on which we tread is like burning coals to 
their feet ; the landscape on which we refresh our eyes, is 
blight and dreariness to their sight ; because they are hunt- 
ed by the cruel, and are clenched by the iron hand of a na- 
tion's injustice. Have we nothing to do for them ? Can we 
meet them in the judgment of the great day ? Do we not 
hear the voice from that hour of accounts, " Inasmuch as ye 

have not done it unto one of the least of these my brethren ye 
3 



18 

have not done it unto me." What means this caution in 
speaking of the woes of the oppressed. This care and slow- 
ness in discoursing in our religious associations on the princi- 
ples of Christianity applied to the slave. Brethren, I would 
not speak with suspicion ; God grant to me the spirit of my 
Master ; yet is the sound of shackles in our midst nothing 
but imagination ? Are there chains upon our bodies, fetters 
on our feet, and locks on our lips. O, ye disciples of Christ, 
are ye freemen ? 

On this day, when our country is viewed through the 
Gospel, and our obligations to those whom the civil powers 
afflict with an inhuman law, let our thoughts be fixed on 
the Bible in this desk. It is the statute book of the chris- 
tian, it is the oracle from the counsels of the Almighty, to 
which we are ever to adhere. No oracle is above it. Let us 
dkect the eye of our mind to the beautiful spire of our tem- 
ple of worship. Its line of direction is not towards capi- 
tols, not to senate chambers, not to folios of legislative en- 
actments ; but it points to heaven, to the Throne of the 
Eternal God. To-day it is an index to us, and we will look 
up to Him whose word liveth and abideth forever. 







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